Population
BASICS The game is designed as a political game first. Not a nation building game. Not a war game but politics. This means that politics is the over shadowing thing of everything in this game. So you may be wondering why we have sections on economy and population. Fair question. Well the reason is because these are important aspects of the game world and are designed to be a gauge of a political parties....aka your.......success. Populations and economies can benefit or be hindered by political decisions so it's important to have a gauge of how these systems operate in the game and know what effect your decisions and policies may be having on them. It's also kind of fun to see how your nations economy and populations have changed over the years. Citizens are the single most important part of any nation. They work in a nations industries, farms, and mines. They also pay taxes, buy goods, etc. They also vote in the elections. They can also move to another nation for a better opportunity if they are unhappy with a countries policies. Citizens can fall into numerous categories and may have different priorities regarding voting. Each citizen will have a political lean including a percentage being independent voters. It is good to have an idea of the population make up of your nation so that you can get a better idea of how to govern. POPULATION GROUPS '''MALE: '''The total number of males in your country. A large male population can decrease the number of births per year and since males tend to not live as long as females, this can effect the lifespan of your population. Males, on average, tend to fill the largest percentage of factory jobs in Geo Online. '''FEMALE: '''The total number of females in your country. Females will be more effected by policies that focus on them and their families. Policies such as abortion, tax incentives for families, etc. Females, on average, live longer than males. '''STUDENTS: '''Students are any citizen that is receiving a formal education. Depending on their age, they attend Primary Schools (Elementary/Middle), Secondary Schools (High School), and Higher Education (College) institutions. The quality of education they receive will depend on the educational budget set by the country. Schooling is not required but it increases skills faster and some businesses will only consider building in a country with an educated population. Citizens will not attend school before the age of 4. '''SOLDIERS: '''If a nation supports a military, there will always be a certain percentage of the population that will join the military (Unless they are required by national law). Soldiers will not receive any payment but they will be provided food by the government. Soldiers will be unavailable to work in a countries businesses during their service. The length of service is determined by the country itself with the default length being 2 years in game time. '''AGE GROUPS: '''The population includes different age groups and each one has its own benefits and disadvantages to a country. For instance, young children don't work but they can improve their education by attending elementary schools which can lead to a more skilled, higher paid work force. While older citizens may also not work but may increase health care costs as they require more health care. Senior Citizens (55 and up) will never leave a country no matter how unhappy they become. Senior citizens who live in countries without any kind of support (Social Security, etc) will continue to work as they will still have to but the necessities. '''NATIONALITY: '''Each citizen in the game has a nationality. This is one major factor that citizens will use when it comes to deciding their political views as every member of a nationality will tend to have the same political views as others of their nationality. '''RELIGION: '''We won't go into specific details about each individual religion here. We will, however, put here that your population also contains different religions. This is a small portion of the game but each religion may have specific beliefs that may or may not agree with your political ideology. For instance, if a nation has a large population of a religion that opposes abortion and your party votes on legislation that legalizes abortion, you will lose some support among believers of that religion. '''FARMERS: '''Every nation will always have a percentage of the population being farmers. This is due to their importance in providing basic food to the population. These citizens are traditionally the least educated and the lowest income earners in the country. The biggest political influencers for this group is anything related to agricultural and taxes. Farmers are very tight with their money so they want to keep as much in their pocket as possible.